Charles Darwin
Modified: 2026-08-05
12:52 PM CDST
- Darwin was one of the most influential men in history. His theory of
evolution transformed the world's view of itself in several ways.
- First, Darwin continued the trend of loss of uniqueness with regard
to humankind's view of itself. The naive view of humans as unique and
specially created had been under siege since the late Middle Ages
(i.e., Galileo and Copernicus). Darwin's theory provided continuity
between humans and the rest of nature.
- Second, Darwin's mechanism of
natural selection provided a plausible substitute for creationism,
even though Darwin could not provide the details of natural
selection. Those details came to light as the science of genetics was
born and the theory of evolution merged with genetics to provide the
"modern synthesis of biology."
- Darwin's notion of survival of
the fittest (although that phrase was Herbert Spencer's, not Darwin's) was wrong. Instead, modern evolutionary theory
substitutes reproduction of the fittest, or differential
reproductive success.
- Third, Darwin and the geologists pushed back the time horizon of
the history of the universe. Instead of Bishop Usher's thousands of
years (since the Flood), we now argue over the 14.5 billion years (since
the Big Bang).
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See Sagan's Cosmic Calendar on the Essential Animal Behavior page
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